Who's Who in the CBU 2008

Name: Regie Rigby

Regie is a strange, almost ethereal creature. Who can plumb the hidden mysteries of his dark and murky past - a past which contains a terrible secret. A secret that taught him that with great power comes great responsibility, that criminals are a cowardly superstitious lot and just who exactly knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

By day, he assumes the appearance of a mild mannered teacher, bringing the joy of literature and the English Language to classes of enthralled and enthusiastic students. But by night?

By night he goes home and writes lesson plans. Sorry. That's as interesting as he gets. Really.

The rumours about rooftop struggles with underworld uberfiends, the gossip about the hidden cave filled with hi-tec equipment and the suggestion that his car might be fitted with turbo lasers are all nonsense.

When he's not teaching he reads comics. Sometimes he combines the two activities. When he's not doing that he's either playing computer games or asleep.

Christmas Is Coming - The Humbugs Are On Order...

By Regie Rigby

Well, this has been something of a long week, and no mistake!

My apologies for the delayed posing of this week’s column, I regret to say that the old spectre of computer malfunction has kept me offline since Wednesday last week. The irritating thing about this is that I was just about to post the column on time (I know – how rare is that these days?) when my laptop’s hard drive died a horrible death.

The IT department at my school did a brilliant job putting the devastated hard drive back together, and I got the machine home on Friday night expecting to be able to reinstall my home based internet connection and get the column up that evening – late, I grant you, but no later than has become normal these days.

Unfortunately although perfectly functional within the limits of the school’s wireless network, my the machine simply refused to let me log on beyond those bounds because my user permissions were incorrectly set. Or something. Anyway, since my school’s IT team are unavailable at weekends, this has kept me offline until now. What can I say – I’m sure you all coped without me.

Anyway. As I type this new introduction to the column using my wife’s resurrected decade old laptop (I swear it runs on steam!) it’s Sunday morning, and I’m assuming that I’ll finally be able to post the column up on the ‘net some time today – but I’m using old fashioned dial-up so it’ll probably be really late! So, apologies for my continued computer enforced lateness. I still have hopes that Santa might well have a surprise in his sack for me that will solve the problem. Otherwise there are always the January sales…

Still, enough of the excuses – let’s just get on with it, shall we?

The fact that Santa will soon be on the way does of course mean that Christmas is coming, and with it the far more important landmark that is the end of the year.* That of course means that the annual FoolBritannia Awards are coming up soon. As ever, this will basically be a chance for me to make a fuss about the things I like, and I make no claims about being representetive of anything other than my own opinion.

I’m still interested in what you all think though, so now’s your chance to let me know. If there’s something in comics that you’ve particularly enjoyed this year – particularly if you think it’s been under appreciated so far, do please let me know. I’ll be starting up an appropriate thread on the message board as soon as I get back online properly** but you can also always e-mail by clicking on the by-line at the top of this column.

Who has been the best writer this year? The best artist? The best publisher? What was the best Graphic novel? The best ongoing comic? And so on. Since these are my awards, I’m completely at liberty to make up categories as I go along, so there are no limits!

Christmas is a funny time in comics – at least it always used to be. Every year the December’s issue would feature your regular heroes donning Santa Hats or having incidental adventures which in some way illustrated “the true meaning of Christmas”. I’ve talked about Christmas Comics before in this column (several times I believe) so I won’t go on about them at length, except to note with some regret that they seem to have drifted out of fashion.

This is a pity. Yes, I fully accept that festive issues have always been rather camp and more than a little cheesy – but so is Christmas for the most part. They have also been for many years, about the only things that have made me feel even remotely “Christmassy”, and since these days suggesting that you don’t really like Christmas is greeted with the same sort of reaction you’d get if you admitted that you enjoyed stamping on kittens, that’s been a useful thing.

I was heartened last week, therefore, to receive a Christmas card (featuring the rather lovely Mutant Goth Vampire Durham Red, no less) from “All at the Nerve Centre” of 2000AD. It was jolly nice of Tharg and the boys to remember me – especially since they were thoughtful enough to include not only a copy of the Graphic novel release of Bad Company: Kano, but also the pleasingly pocket sized collection of Droid Life, the short cartoon that runs in the editorial pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.

I was particularly pleased to get my hands on the Bad Company book, because I’ve always had something of a soft spot for Kano, the flat headed Frankenstinian anti hero of this hard as nails Vietnam style future war story. I think*** that the original series of Bad Company, a dogged platoon of misfits fighting the rabid advances of the alien “Krool” forces on the planet Arrarat started in the mid eighties, at about the same time as I was discovering 2000AD, so I guess I sort of think of Kano as one of my contemporaries – a character I didn’t feel I needed to catch up on lots of back story with.

Bad Company also introduced me to both the writing of Peter Milligan and the art of Brett Ewins – both creators I still hold in very high esteem today. Ewins in particular changed the way I look at comic art. Kano is a remarkable book, collecting a series of stories originally published in progs 828-37, and 1273-77, long after the original series I loved so much had ended.

As you might expect, they deal with the aftermath of war and the effects it has on those who survive conflict. Sensitively and engagingly told by Milligan, with some of the finest line work I think Ewins has ever done, this is as fine a piece of war storytelling as you will ever read. One for the Christmas list, I think my friends.

I suspect that Cat Sullivan’s Droid Life might also find its way into a few stockings this year too – although because of the nature of the cartoons it is I think much more something for the dedicated ‘Tooth reader – some of the jokes are very much of the “in” variety. I laughed nearly all the way through, and even my wife (who doesn’t read ‘Tooth and found almost none of it funny as a result) suggested that it was worth buying merely for the image of Judge Dredd in his helmet and underpants on page six!

This column wasn’t supposed to be all about comics you should ask for for Christmas though****. I leave such matters in your hands. No, I was going to spend some time musing on issues raised on the message board in the wake of last week’s column.

Last week (and if does seem like a long time ago now) I suggested that the hit TV series Heroes gave the lie to the suggestion that the “mainstream” audience can’t get on with Superheroes, but that it was also not really all that good or all that original. Why, I wondered, will TV audiences rave about this show, when they wouldn’t’ even think to look at a comic that does the whole thing so much better.

There were many comments (all of which are still there of course, if you want to swing on by and join the discussion) but two clear points emerged. The first is that many of us don’t really mind being in a minority. We sort of like the exclusive feeling that being “Comics Geeks” (or “Panelologists” of you prefer) gives us, and we’re not really all that interested in sharing that with the mundanes, if we’re honest.

The second, and perhaps more serious point was that comics suffer from the same problem as books. They require too much thought for the average punter. You can turn on the TV, or go to the movies and switch your brain into neutral – or even just plain “off”! A comic, like a book, requires the audience to make some effort. Indeed, since a comic requires you to read both words and pictures there is a pretty strong argument to say that if anything graphic narrative requires even more effort than regular prose.

I haven’t really made up my mind where I stand on these ideas yet (so expect a rant on this subject some time in the New Year) but one thing does occur to me.

We can’t bloody well win, can we?

On the one hand, comics are seen by the intellectual elite as sub-literature. Fodder for “kids and semi-literates”, to quote Alan Moore again. On the other, the “kids and semi-literates” – along with just about everyone else, think they’re too intellectually challenging to be worth their effort.

Sobering thought, innit?








*Long term readers will remember that I’m more of a New Year person than a Christmas person.

**Unless one of the board regulars beats be to it of course…

***More dedicated ‘Tooth historians than me might well like to correct me on this point…

****Mind you, while we’re on the subject if you are still writing your letter to Santa, and you missed the hardback, you should definitely ask for a copy of the soft-cover edition of Pride of Baghdad. It’s too good to not own.
Well, this has been something of a long week, and no mistake!

My apologies for the delayed posing of this week’s column, I regret to say that the old spectre of computer malfunction has kept me offline since Wednesday last week. The irritating thing about this is that I was just about to post the column on time (I know – how rare is that these days?) when my laptop’s hard drive died a horrible death.

The IT department at my school did a brilliant job putting the devastated hard drive back together, and I got the machine home on Friday night expecting to be able to reinstall my home based internet connection and get the column up that evening – late, I grant you, but no later than has become normal these days.

Unfortunately although perfectly functional within the limits of the school’s wireless network, my the machine simply refused to let me log on beyond those bounds because my user permissions were incorrectly set. Or something. Anyway, since my school’s IT team are unavailable at weekends, this has kept me offline until now. What can I say – I’m sure you all coped without me.

Anyway. As I type this new introduction to the column using my wife’s resurrected decade old laptop (I swear it runs on steam!) it’s Sunday morning, and I’m assuming that I’ll finally be able to post the column up on the ‘net some time today – but I’m using old fashioned dial-up so it’ll probably be really late! So, apologies for my continued computer enforced lateness. I still have hopes that Santa might well have a surprise in his sack for me that will solve the problem. Otherwise there are always the January sales…

Still, enough of the excuses – let’s just get on with it, shall we?

The fact that Santa will soon be on the way does of course mean that Christmas is coming, and with it the far more important landmark that is the end of the year.* That of course means that the annual FoolBritannia Awards are coming up soon. As ever, this will basically be a chance for me to make a fuss about the things I like, and I make no claims about being representetive of anything other than my own opinion.

I’m still interested in what you all think though, so now’s your chance to let me know. If there’s something in comics that you’ve particularly enjoyed this year – particularly if you think it’s been under appreciated so far, do please let me know. I’ll be starting up an appropriate thread on the message board as soon as I get back online properly** but you can also always e-mail by clicking on the by-line at the top of this column.

Who has been the best writer this year? The best artist? The best publisher? What was the best Graphic novel? The best ongoing comic? And so on. Since these are my awards, I’m completely at liberty to make up categories as I go along, so there are no limits!

Christmas is a funny time in comics – at least it always used to be. Every year the December’s issue would feature your regular heroes donning Santa Hats or having incidental adventures which in some way illustrated “the true meaning of Christmas”. I’ve talked about Christmas Comics before in this column (several times I believe) so I won’t go on about them at length, except to note with some regret that they seem to have drifted out of fashion.

This is a pity. Yes, I fully accept that festive issues have always been rather camp and more than a little cheesy – but so is Christmas for the most part. They have also been for many years, about the only things that have made me feel even remotely “Christmassy”, and since these days suggesting that you don’t really like Christmas is greeted with the same sort of reaction you’d get if you admitted that you enjoyed stamping on kittens, that’s been a useful thing.

I was heartened last week, therefore, to receive a Christmas card (featuring the rather lovely Mutant Goth Vampire Durham Red, no less) from “All at the Nerve Centre” of 2000AD. It was jolly nice of Tharg and the boys to remember me – especially since they were thoughtful enough to include not only a copy of the Graphic novel release of Bad Company: Kano, but also the pleasingly pocket sized collection of Droid Life, the short cartoon that runs in the editorial pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.

I was particularly pleased to get my hands on the Bad Company book, because I’ve always had something of a soft spot for Kano, the flat headed Frankenstinian anti hero of this hard as nails Vietnam style future war story. I think*** that the original series of Bad Company, a dogged platoon of misfits fighting the rabid advances of the alien “Krool” forces on the planet Arrarat started in the mid eighties, at about the same time as I was discovering 2000AD, so I guess I sort of think of Kano as one of my contemporaries – a character I didn’t feel I needed to catch up on lots of back story with.

Bad Company also introduced me to both the writing of Peter Milligan and the art of Brett Ewins – both creators I still hold in very high esteem today. Ewins in particular changed the way I look at comic art. Kano is a remarkable book, collecting a series of stories originally published in progs 828-37, and 1273-77, long after the original series I loved so much had ended.

As you might expect, they deal with the aftermath of war and the effects it has on those who survive conflict. Sensitively and engagingly told by Milligan, with some of the finest line work I think Ewins has ever done, this is as fine a piece of war storytelling as you will ever read. One for the Christmas list, I think my friends.

I suspect that Cat Sullivan’s Droid Life might also find its way into a few stockings this year too – although because of the nature of the cartoons it is I think much more something for the dedicated ‘Tooth reader – some of the jokes are very much of the “in” variety. I laughed nearly all the way through, and even my wife (who doesn’t read ‘Tooth and found almost none of it funny as a result) suggested that it was worth buying merely for the image of Judge Dredd in his helmet and underpants on page six!

This column wasn’t supposed to be all about comics you should ask for for Christmas though****. I leave such matters in your hands. No, I was going to spend some time musing on issues raised on the message board in the wake of last week’s column.

Last week (and if does seem like a long time ago now) I suggested that the hit TV series Heroes gave the lie to the suggestion that the “mainstream” audience can’t get on with Superheroes, but that it was also not really all that good or all that original. Why, I wondered, will TV audiences rave about this show, when they wouldn’t’ even think to look at a comic that does the whole thing so much better.

There were many comments (all of which are still there of course, if you want to swing on by and join the discussion) but two clear points emerged. The first is that many of us don’t really mind being in a minority. We sort of like the exclusive feeling that being “Comics Geeks” (or “Panelologists” of you prefer) gives us, and we’re not really all that interested in sharing that with the mundanes, if we’re honest.

The second, and perhaps more serious point was that comics suffer from the same problem as books. They require too much thought for the average punter. You can turn on the TV, or go to the movies and switch your brain into neutral – or even just plain “off”! A comic, like a book, requires the audience to make some effort. Indeed, since a comic requires you to read both words and pictures there is a pretty strong argument to say that if anything graphic narrative requires even more effort than regular prose.

I haven’t really made up my mind where I stand on these ideas yet (so expect a rant on this subject some time in the New Year) but one thing does occur to me.

We can’t bloody well win, can we?

On the one hand, comics are seen by the intellectual elite as sub-literature. Fodder for “kids and semi-literates”, to quote Alan Moore again. On the other, the “kids and semi-literates” – along with just about everyone else, think they’re too intellectually challenging to be worth their effort.

Sobering thought, innit?








*Long term readers will remember that I’m more of a New Year person than a Christmas person.

**Unless one of the board regulars beats be to it of course…

***More dedicated ‘Tooth historians than me might well like to correct me on this point…

****Mind you, while we’re on the subject if you are still writing your letter to Santa, and you missed the hardback, you should definitely ask for a copy of the soft-cover edition of Pride of Baghdad. It’s too good to not own.